Held down by Roland with one hand, Charles couldn’t break free at all.

  First of all, Roland was at the Legendary level, and already level sixteen, even if the Mage’s physical growth was relatively lower, the Constitution wasn’t bad as long as the level was high enough.

  For example, Roland could now simply use brute force alone to pummel a level three high constitution growth Warrior without using magic.

  Charles’s occupation was merchant, a casual occupation.

  This profession’s main attribute was Charm, and with his level only being eleven, he naturally couldn’t break free from Roland’s grip. He struggled hard a few times, his face turning red without being able to break himself from Roland’s clutches.

  And it was in plain sight.

  He immediately felt a bit embarrassed!

  “Let go!” He looked extremely irritated.

  “I’m asking you, is what Gerton said true?” Roland asked again. “I told you to let go,” Charles roared. “You are so uncultured.”


  At this moment, he could already imagine the sarcastic comments about him in the livestream room.

  Something about being weak and not even being able to counter a Mage’s grip.

  “Wrong answer.”


  Roland smiled as light blue lightning instantly enveloped Charles!

  Instant cast Thunder Palm!

  First Charles had a shock in his eyes, then his whole body trembled as if all his cells had been fitted with a small motor running at full power.

  His hands were shaking so fast that there were afterimages.

  Then after two seconds, his body rapidly dehydrated and soon fell to the ground as a charred, dried corpse.

  Straight-up murder!

  PK between players was not surprising, and it wasn’t like they couldn’t be revived.

  However, Charles was the chairman of Cornucopia, and now Cornucopia, with the cooperation of the Hollevin royal family, had expanded its power quite a bit. It was one of the top five guilds in the entire server, holding a large number of resources, and could be said to be quite influential.

  However, Roland electrified him straight away.

  In the presence of countless internet users.

  Then a huge wave of people in the pop-ups started spamming that Roland was bullying people with his power, but seconds later, a flood of “Nice kill” or “If Roland killing people is bullying people with his power, then is it justice when Charles yells at a maidservant?” and such counter comments were made.

  Among the few livestreamers, two were from Cornucopia.

  One of them jumped straight up and shouted, “You actually killed someone at the drop of a hat, aren’t you afraid of the red name? So uncultured, shame on you!”


  Oftentimes, being cultured was a cure-all for accusing others, and once it was out, it was as if one could take the moral high ground.

  “What’s there to be afraid of,” Roland said indifferently. “Killing a player and becoming red-named, at worst it’s just dying once from being besieged. Someone like Charles, who bullies orphans and widows and drives people to their death, is indeed very cultured. If this is the culture of Cornucopia, then I’d rather not be associated with such culture.”


  He said this to the bashful man who had jumped up and shouted.

  Roland looked at those livestreamers and added, “Wetland City is Betta’s heart and soul. Whether it’s his relatives’ inheritance or otherwise, it’s not something that a trash guild like Cornucopia can get its hands on. I will say this now: if Charles brings people to rob the rights to Wetland City, I’ll kill them once I see them.”


  After speaking, Roland sat down directly in the city hall and asked Gerton, “With the Knights of the Round Table gone, how many vacancies need to be filled before the city hall is up and running again?” “It must be around two hundred at least,” Gerton said helplessly. “Many of the key positions Master has placed are for the Knights of the Round Table.”


  “Who else in the city hall now knows more about the functional operation process?”


  “I, Mr. Roland. Hello, I am a commoner, Dacnus.” A young man who was a native stepped forward. “I have previously been serving as the clerk of Mayor Betta, helping him with the delivery of almost all orders and messages, so I have a better understanding of the plans and patterns of the entire Wetland City.”


  “Then a temporary position of deputy mayor will be created and you will be assigned its place. Now start recruiting people immediately. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t capable enough, the institutional functions of the Wetland City must be made to work again first.”


  The youth responded excitedly, “Yes, Mr. Roland.”


  “What a lofty mouth. He gave a direct order, treating himself as the mayor.” Another livestreamer of Cornucopia snorted and started to lead the narrative. “On what basis, just because you’re high-level?”


  “Just with the floating city in the sky.” Roland sat down casually before turning to them. “For now, Wetland City is under the temporary management of F6. How it is handled after that will depend on whether Betta’s parents want the place or not. If they don’t want it or don’t want to dispose of it, things will be discussed separately.”


  “Tsk, to put it bluntly, it’s still overwhelming people with power. Will that convince anyone? Not many players will agree with you on that,” the livestreamer continued to shout.

  “What’s wrong with me oppressing people with my power now? Why do I need other people’s consent?” Roland looked at him and calmly said, “If you talk any more, I will go and turn Cornucopia into a crater right now. It was never Cornucopia’s right to interfere in the affairs of Wetland City.”


  That livestreamer was so agitated by Roland that his brain filled with blood and he was about to retort but was pulled away by another livestreamer.

  They didn’t dare to gamble. It was already humiliating enough that their chairman was directly killed. If their base was blown up, they would become the laughing stock of others for a long time.

  After the livestreamers left, Li Lin and the others came over and asked, “What now?”


  “Stay, wait for Schuck to come; he is Betta’s cousin and has some say and authority.” Roland stood up and said to the maidservants next to him, “Also, bury Lisa, right in the backyard of the mayor’s residence—I’m sure she’ll be happy.”


  The maidservants left, and two of them who were close to Lisa even wiped tears from their eyes.

  After that, Roland sat in the city hall the whole time.

  Roland was the strongest in the entire server, and there was a terrifying floating city hanging in the air to deter the rascals.

  None of the residents of the game world, even the ambitious ones, dared to act rashly, and the several lords of the surrounding territories, who had some friction with Betta before, didn’t dare to act rashly either.

  And while the players were staying put, for now, there was a lot of discussion about it in the forums.

  There were three factions: the anti-Roland faction, the neutral faction, and the pro-Roland faction. All of them were flaming each other.

  The anti-Roland faction was saying that Roland was not a successor and wasn’t qualified to oversee Wetland City.

  Besides, Roland already had the floating city and Delpon, and now if he took Wetland City, he alone would possess the vast majority of player interests.

  It was simply that less than one in ten thousand people accounted for more than eighty percent of the overall wealth of players.

  This was a classic distribution injustice and should be overthrown.

  The game couldn’t be played like this. It was too cruel and too realistic. These paid commenters who were leading the narrative even pinged the administrator of the official forum to come out and do justice.

  But the game producers simply ignored the matter and just released an announcement to get over it.

  “The development team is not in favor of exchanging virtual currency with real currency, and all transactions between players are the results of their own choices. The development team has no right to interfere or manage this. The statement that one player accounts for 80% of the total wealth of the players does not hold. In the opinion of the development team, all data in the game is just node signals and have no real value, and we kindly ask all players to refrain from trading virtual currency. The development team is not responsible for disputes and consequences of offline transactions.”


  To put it bluntly, the game producers couldn’t care about their strife.

  At this point, the morale of the anti-Roland faction was greatly damaged.

  The pro-Roland faction, needless to say, believed that Roland did a good job of guarding Betta’s estate and waiting for Betta’s parents to take it over, which was a good end in itself.

  As for the neutral faction, they thought it didn’t matter who was the mayor, as long as Wetland City would be safe from chaos.

  That being said, they thought Roland was doing a good job, at least for now, of stabilizing the security and business environment in Wetland City.

  So in reality, they were also slightly biased toward Roland.

  In the following ten days, Roland stayed in the city hall and did not leave.

  The former clerk, now the deputy mayor Dacnus, did a really good job. He quickly recruited enough people to run the entire city’s functional organizations, and although the efficiency was much worse than before, the governmental functions were at least running.

  Besides, the newly recruited staff were all new to the job and it was normal for them to be rusty in business, so given a little time to train, they would probably be able to adapt.

  On the other side, Charles invited many large and medium-sized guilds, as well as famous livestreamers, to a meeting in their base.

  Seventeen people gathered around a large table, either sitting or standing.

  With a gloomy face, Charles said, “Wetland City, we have to gnaw down a piece of it. I received inside information that open beta will soon start, and the first batch of virtual cabins then will be two million units. With so many people coming in, Wetland City, as the main city for us players, will have to expand. You should be able to clearly understand how big the interests are.”


  “It’s big for sure, but you have to be able to get it.” The former chairman of the Church of Garland sighed and said, “Roland is now boldly sitting in the city hall, and with the floating city right overhead, who dares to fight against him?”


  “We can’t do anything about Roland in the game, but can’t we do something in reality? You’re all well-connected, just find Roland in reality,” a guild chairman suggested.

  Charles said in exasperation, “Here’s the trouble; the game’s official information is pretty well kept secret and we can’t even get our hands on it.”


  “Then how do you know that Betta died in reality?”


  “Guessed.” Charles explained, “Betta is a Divine Nobe, able to contract a large number of Knights of the Round Table for his use. All the Knights of the Round Table will have a crest on the back of their hands, representing their identity. Some time ago, I was talking about weapons business with a dwarf Knight of the Round table when I saw the crest on the back of his hand disappear, while the dwarf showed a rather horrified expression. Later, I looked up the information on Divine Nobles and combined with the fact that Betta had not been online for ten days, I ventured to guess that he had died in reality. I didn’t expect that I hit the nail on the head.”


  A certain Warrior guild chairman sitting to the right laughed. “Unfortunately, you only guessed the beginning, not the end, and were trying to seize power when Roland came.”


  Charles’s expression was sour. He had now dropped to level ten, almost level nine. It was not easy for merchants to level up, and Roland had gotten him killed once, directly scrapping nearly half a year of his efforts. “Since we can’t set our hands on the city hall, why not try to hold the military power of Wetland City in our hands first?” someone suggested. “The Knights of the Round Table are gone, and now the army of Wetland City should be leaderless. As long as we hold the army, we have the right to speak. Roland dares to kill players because killing players will only make him red-named, which can be rid of online, but killing NPCs is different; turning into a black leaf, even Roland can’t bear that. He wouldn’t dare act recklessly.”


  Charles didn’t want to talk at this point.

  The man who made the suggestion looked at Charles in confusion.

  At this moment, someone explained, “Although the Knights of the Round Table did disband, the Frostwolf Clan now holds the military power in Wetland City.” “What’s going on? Didn’t the Frostwolf Clan just move into Wetland City less than a year ago? How did they earn such influence in the army so quickly? We players aren’t even that good!”


  Charles couldn’t help but explain, “Betta hired the Frostwolf Clan’s elites to be stationed in the army as instructors more than half a year ago. One Frostwolf Clan instructor for every hundred soldiers.”


  With that said, most people got the point. The strong were extremely admired in the military.

  The Frostwolf Clan were all Master elites, and most of them were straightforward and dignified, very much in line with the military’s style, and the young soldiers considerably admired these Frostwolf Clan instructors.

  For the low-rank soldiers, the instructor’s word was sometimes worth more than their superior’s.

  Someone who didn’t quite understand the cause and effect continued to ask, “Then can’t we buy off the Frostwolf Clan? I heard that they are relatively poor.”


  “It is difficult. The Frostwolf Clan is quite united within. They usually listen to the clan leader, but more often than not, only listen to the Winterwolf Holy Lady The Winterwolf Holy Lady goes in and out of the manor Roland has set up here every day, it is obvious that they have an affair. How do you bribe them?” said the Church of Garland’s chairman admiringly. “So that is why people like Roland deserve to be the strongest Mage. Look at this advanced planning, blocking almost all the paths that we can think of. The title of the strongest in the whole server is well deserved. There’s only ever a mistaken name but never a mistaken title.”


  The person who spoke just now was still undeterred. “We can find a way to bribe the Winterwolf Holy Lady. Find a handsome Bard to seduce her, or promise her lots of money. She’s bound to have a weakness, right?” Charles chortled rather dismissively, but he wasn’t aiming it at anyone; the sneer was aimed at himself. “I tried to bribe her and find someone to seduce the Winterwolf Holy lady over half a year ago, but none of it workednot even the slightest hope.”


  “That can’t be right. All humans have desires and weaknesses.”


  “But the Winterwolf Holy Lady is not a human being, she is a snow wolf,” Charles said with slight envy. “What is the biggest advantage of canines?”


  “A good sense of smell?”


  “It’s loyalty. Loyalty to the clan and their mates.”


  A continuous exclamation of admiration and envy resounded through the attendees.

  The Winterwolf Holy Lady often walked around the city, so many of her photos were put on the forum.

  The beautiful girl with snowy hair, canine ears, big breasts, and long legs, so pure and alluring, jabbed at many people’s fetishes.

  Especially those who loved races other than humans.

  In ten men, there were at least eight who were such, and the other two were in the process of awakening

  “So there’s nothing we can do at all?” someone finally asked this question. The meeting room fell silent all of a sudden.

  Charles thought about it and said, “We’re not completely out of solutions. We can lobby the Hollevin royal family to re-confer the ownership of Wetland City, and also, try to drive a wedge between Roland and Schuck, or even the members of F6.”